GT suffered a crushing 92-run defeat at the hands of RCB in Qualifier 1.
Put into bat, RCB posted a mammoth total of 254/5 in their 20 overs, which was powered by an explosive, unbeaten 93 off 33 balls from skipper Rajat Patidar and solid 43-run contributions from Virat Kohli and Krunal Pandya.
In reply, the Titans' chase collapsed to a dismal 162 all out in 19.3 overs, with Rahul Tewatia (68 off 43) being the only highlight.
Following the heavy loss, New Zealand all-rounder Glenn Phillips, who didn’t play against RCB, was sent to the post-match press conference in place of captain Shubman Gill and head coach Ashish Nehra.
Phillips visibly struggled to field tough questions regarding the team's questionable selection tactics. The GT management raised eyebrows by dropping the in-form Arshad Khan—who had recently earned an India A call-up—to play left-arm pacer Kulwant Khejroliya.
It was only Khejroliya's second appearance of the entire season. The move backfired as Khejroliya conceded 31 runs in his two overs and failed to pick a wicket.
“I’d imagine that’s probably just come from the coaching staff, what they have seen Khejroliya do at training,” Phillips responded, failing to explain the tactical change.
“You know, he’s a phenomenal bowler. He’s got great skills. He showed his skills really well in his first over today, as we saw; unfortunately, it didn’t necessarily pay off for that second over. But you know, the pressure of the game can do that to someone and you know, the coaching staff has full faith in everybody that they put onto the field.
“So they would have had that conversation with him, I’m sure, and he would have been fully prepared for what he had to go out there and do.”
When a journalist asked if GT had effectively "given up" on the 255-run chase, Phillips snapped, calling it a "silly question".
“That’s a silly question. That is a really silly question,” an annoyed Phillips said. “No one goes in there waiting to go - Oh, you know what, we’re just going to give up on this one. Why would we do that as professional cricketers? That’s a terrible question. We went out there, and we gave it everything. Unfortunately, when you’re trying to chase 250, everything has to go right. And we went out there to try and make everything go right and obviously it didn’t.”
Commenting on the scoreboard pressure, Phillips added: “Obviously, there’s a huge amount of scoreboard pressure when you’re trying to chase 250 and you know, very few teams have done it. Obviously Punjab Kings have managed to do it a couple of times, which has been phenomenal. And I think that maybe they made it seem easier than it is. I’ve yet to be part of a team that’s gotten anywhere near 250. So, you know, sometimes it just says what it is.”
Widely regarded as one of the finest fielders in the world, Glenn Phillips rued the fielding lapses as GT were made to pay heavily.
“Especially in playoff games, fielding does become really, really crucial. You can bowl well and you can bat well, but if you field badly, you’re still going to lose. And obviously, Rajat made us pay big time today and Finn made us pay in a previous game. And you know, you can’t win games if you can’t take catches,” he remarked.
On being asked why he was sent to represent the team after such a crucial loss, Phillips gave a weird explanation, citing that the Titans share media duties and an outside perspective from someone benched helps protect the starters' mental space for upcoming matches.
“Yeah, obviously, we’re all part of the team together and we all have equal media roles to play. And I think sometimes an outside perspective from someone who isn’t playing the game (helps). I think it’s really important for guys that will now play Qualifier 2, for them to just knock it down, get their heads where they need to be,” he stated.